Updates

Happy 2019! It’s been a minute since we gave you news of Proud Mary’s progress, and we know you’re, ahem, thirsty for it. Strap on your steam engines, here we go!

Last October, we completed our first large (for us!) Proud Mary production run at a bottling facility in Santa Cruz. Working alongside our co-packer, we navigated many a difficult challenge to make sure our product still had the integrity and taste profile that has made it an instant success and propelled us on this journey.

For example, the bottling facility was not equipped to make the brine that is such a key flavor element in Proud Mary. After considering several options, we ended up pulling a couple of very late nights mixing 125 gallons(!!!) of pickle brine in the McVicker Pickles Bayview kitchen, then transporting it to the bottling facility near Santa Cruz.

We also had to create a custom spice mix, blending all the spices that make Proud Mary special into one ingredient. As it turns out, the spice mix is delicious as a seasoning on it’s own--we’ve been eating a lot of Proud Mary-spiced popcorn and nuts this holiday season, and have plans to offer it as our newest product soon!

Finally, the day of production arrived and we were pretty damn nervous. But as soon as our feet hit the factory floor, we immediately realized we were in good hands. The facility is operated by some of the baddest ass women we’ve had the pleasure of meeting, who have been doing this work for decades. Rose and Leti brought us into the lab to taste a sample. With our fingers crossed and our hearts in our throats, we tasted it. Delicious!! All the notes were there—the heat, the pickle brine, and the savory smokiness of our custom spice blend. (Rose and Leti liked it, too) We signed a few papers, pressed play, and watched our babies spin into life.

It was thrilling to watch over 270 cases come off the line in a matter of a few hours, something that would have taken us multiple days, if not weeks, to accomplish ourselves.

In December we launched this new & improved website, complete with an online store. Here you can see our ever-expanding list of retailers and you can FINALLY purchase and ship Proud Mary & selected McVicker Pickles products directly to you and your loved ones.

What you can do to help:

-Do you live in the Bay Area? Have a wonderful relationship with your neighborhood grocer, liquor or corner store owner? Drop us a line, and we’ll drop them a bottle.

-Work at a company with a budget for entertaining? Have us come into your office for a Bloody Mary Bar the morning after a big win for the team, or simply stock our product in the work pantry.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us on this journey so far. We are adding new stores & restaurants every week, so we hope to see you in your neighborhood very soon.

Join us at the Dogpatch Holiday Sale on Sat., Dec. 1st! Visit 25+ retailers and galleries, and shop 40+ popups. We'll be at Harmonic Brewing from 10am-4pm, along with Bayview Pasta and a host of other vendors. For more info visit lovedogpatch.com !

Find us in the taproom at Harmonic Brewing, along with our friends from Bayview Pasta, McQuade’s Chutney and more!

It's that time, pickle peeps. For the fourth year in a row, McVicker Pickles will be doing our proverbial thang (ugh, sorry!) at Maker Faire, at the San Mateo Fairgrounds from Friday, May 20 - Sunday the 22nd.

Peep it! ---> http://makerfaire.com/bay-area/

For those of you who don't know what Maker Faire is, it's where you can see impossibly smart people doing impossibly cool shit like this. (Which, goddamn!) Ah, but people literally PLAYING THE DOCTOR WHO THEME WITH LIGHTNING can't hold a candle to the power of pickles. So come by, say hi, and help us show these electricity-wielding chumps who's boss. US!

Valentine's Day is nearly upon us, and once again it's time to celebrate the ecstatic, indescribable joys of true love and/or numb yourself, however briefly, to the crushing loneliness that's dragging you down, down, down. Opera is overrated. Fancy dinners are so gauche. Cards and flowers? Pssh, what is this, the Middle Ages? Here at McVicker Pickles, we're going celebrate the only way we know how: through the power of pickling.

So, between now and this Sunday, we're offering our first-ever Netflix and Dill Date Night Discount: a pair of tickets to any upcoming class for only $80! What better way to show someone you care than by giving them the gift of pickling, ideally one that appropriates an already-dated codeword for sex?

Well, well, well. Look who we have here. If it isn't our newest addition to the McVicker Pickle Army - Curried Cauliflower. And he brought his little friend, Taqueria Pickles! Make 'em feel welcome, gang. By eating them. Make them feel welcome by eating them.

Also, new classes are available! Start the year off right by clicking right here, right now.

Good news for you last-minute stocking stuffers: some more spaces have just become available for our Jams & Jellies class on Monday, December 21st! Whip up some jars of pure, jammy bliss just in time for Christmas breakfast (also great for all other breakfasts).

We've also added two new stores to the McVicker Army - say hey to the folks at Goods in Alameda, and Kitchentown in San Mateo. And you can always check out our full list of stores that carry McVicker Pickles here.